


So Strange I Remember You

by opti



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Drabble Collection, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Smut, and more - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:46:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5157479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opti/pseuds/opti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes people are just meant to be together, alternate universes be damned.</p><p> <i>Tumblr drabble collection. All AU, Mostly April/Andy!</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The 90's (Rated G)

**Author's Note:**

> These were written from a tumblr prompt list!
> 
> You can find my tumblr [here!](http://anotheropti.tumblr.com) All ratings are in chapter titles, so have fun and please consider leaving a kudo and comment :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: "Hurt."

As it turns out, Seattle doesn’t rain nearly as much as Andy expected. 

That day, though, it was pouring over harder than Pawnee ever had. Maybe it seemed that way just because he was supposed to be going to an audition for some garage band a few blocks down from his place, but he was still drenched. The only sound in the quiet hour was the murmuring traffic and the spatter of rain on his guitar’s hard-shell case.

He walks a few blocks before the rain gets to him, but there’s no hood on his sweater still riddled with holes. So, rain it is. Rain on a threadbare sweater and jeans in an even worse condition.

As it turns out, rain  _has_ to be a terrible omen for him.

Just as he’s about to turn the corner on towards his destination – some seedy apartment complex basement – a sudden force slammed into his chest and sent him flying onto his back.

His guitar case went flying as well, and a sudden  _skid_ rings in his ears with the rain dropping on his face. Someone shouts, but Andy’s still dazed from the hit.

 _Rain sucks_ , he thinks with blurry eyes and an even wetter face.

“Are you okay?” the voice that shouted before asks again, saying it slowly. “Dude, don’t be dead. I really can’t afford this.”

Andy’s head swirls again and then a face comes into focus. Well, a face and  _lots_ of black hair. Actually, there’s plenty of black elsewhere – her ears have black somethings studded in them, her eyes are about as smokey as someone can stand, and her clothes are just as black.

“Dude!”

he shakes his head and her face comes in clearer, and Andy’s mouth is still open and his jaw slack from staring at her when she scoffs. 

“Oh, um, sorry,” he says slowly. “Wait, no! You, like, just hit me with your car!”

“Car? Try bike,” she laughs but doesn’t move. “Seriously, are you okay?”

“I feel like someone just hit my head with a hammer. Like, ten times,” Andy complains and squints, the girl’s dark chuckle greeting him afterward. After a few seconds, Andy found himself staring again and the girl, whose entire look seemed to be predicated on the color black and oddly religious looking jewelry, glances away.

“So… you’re fine. Great!” she says and sits up. Andy does his best to curl up and watch her stand. “Yeah… fine, great.”

“Hey,” Andy calls after her. 

When she turns to look at him, the overcast day and its gray light break away some kind of mask that the cover of her hair had over her before. Sure, maybe Andy’s a little messed up for getting clocked by a bike and then thinking the girl that hit him was extraordinarily pretty. Fine, maybe he hit his head on the sidewalk. Either way, her eyes flicker up to his and then find the ground again. She brushes her hair out of her face, and Andy’s heart does some weird kind of leap.

“Your guitar’s in the street,” she says but all Andy sees is her lips moving and he definitely doesn’t hear a word.

“Hmm?”

“I said, some guy’s about to run over your guitar,” she clarifies and Andy’s eyes go wide.

He dashes for it and retrieves it while the towncar blares its horn in his face. When he’s back on the sidewalk, the goth-girl hasn’t moved. She’s only watching him.

“Thanks,” he says and puts his guitar down. He reaches out for a handshake, not thinking. The girl looks at his hand and gives her same, dark laughter before taking it and shaking it with exaggeration. “I’m Andy. I’m, um… yeah. Andy.”

“April,” she answers and then Andy laughs. His cheeks are blazing, surely noticeable, but he’s still watching the way she holds herself – literally, arms hugging her body defensively – and standing back away from her. “Do you, like, want me to drive you to the hospital or something? ‘Cause that’s gonna be kinda hard…”

She motions back to her bike and Andy laughs.

“Um, I was thinking… uh, coffee?” 

He asks so plainly it clearly surprises April, who looks up quickly with wide eyes. A sharp curl to her lips brings a smile all the way to her eyes and she gives a short nod. 

“Y-Yeah,” she says. “I know a cool place just down the street… we can, uh, go–”

“Now?” he asks, pushing a little because the jangling bits of her jewelry probably all have awesome stories he wants to hear about. 

“Yes,” April replies instantly.

As it turns out, rain makes the perfect soundtrack to a coffee date.


	2. Knock (Rated T)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> College meet-cute! Because, frankly, that's what a lot of this is going to be.
> 
> Prompt: "Nervous."

A heavy thud hits April’s door and practically lifts her ten foot out of her chair. Shaking off the surprise, she listens through the absurdly loud music next door for another one.

“Ugh,” she grumbles to herself. “This better be the pizza.”

That’s what she needed right now – some time to herself after a shitty day at school, alone in her apartment where a professor won’t look at her and judge her on the merits of some stupid answer, and she needed to eat a large pizza herself.

Pepperoni cures all that ails you, after all.

April digs her wallet out of her jacket hanging by the door and swings it open to reveal, instead of her pizza delivery boy-savior, someone she’s never seen before. Instead of delicious pizza, he’s holding his hand that’s covered in napkins. 

“Sorry, I super need to use your phone… um,” he shouts, lifting his hand up and April grimaces.

She considers him for a second. Despite the clearly pained expression, he’s  _big_. He stands a whole head taller than her and at least another one of her wide, messy curls of hair and a bewildered expression on his face just making him look like a friendly giant. But, giant nonetheless and she’s never seen him before in her life.

“Um… I-I don’t think so,” April stammers.

“Please! No one’s answering next door,” the guy whines. “I just wanna call an ambulance or something.”

“Did you cut your hand off?” April asks flatly. 

“What? No, but I cut it pretty bad,” he shrugs and looks down at the mess in his hands.

April sighs. “Okay, but if you murder me I’ll haunt you forever,” she says and steps away from the threshold. Had he wanted to just do that, he was clearly in the advantaged position already.

That’s what she reasoned at least, letting him bumble his way into the tiny apartment and look around hopelessly for the phone. 

“Uh…”

“Dude, just… c’mere,” April motions for him to her desk where she keeps her first-aid kit her mother forced on her. “It’s probably not that bad.”

“You wanna see it?”

“Duh,” she says calmly like her chest isn’t on fire and there’s a strange, but alarmingly cute guy in her apartment all of a sudden. “Here.”

She pops open the little crate and looks over at his hand. Across his palm is a thin slash like he had tried to grab a knife blade first, and April tilts her head and chuckles. 

“Let’s go wash that out,” she says and takes his hand. It’s huge around hers, naturally fitting, and that forces her heart into her throat. April lets go.

After a few minutes of silently washing the thin cut, she brings him back to the desk.

Taking out the little tube of Neosporin, she spreads it out in a light film on the cut. He winces, but after another slow brush along his palm with her index finger – feathering it light and with a shaky hand, naturally – he laughs.

“Are you, like, a doctor?” he asks, grinning.

“Nurse,” she answers blandly. “Well, student anyways. Thought it’d be cool to see bodies and stuff. Any idiot can do this crap, though.”

“That does sound awesome,” he says and pulls his hand away.

“Here,” she hands him a pad bandage and starts unrolling a bit of adhesive. “It’d be pretty lame if you started bleeding on my floor again.”

The guy laughs and waits patiently while she unravels enough to fit around his paw of a hand. When she looks at him, holding bandage against his palm, the guy’s staring at her curiously. Breathing is really annoying all of a sudden, too.

“You, um, still might need stitches,” she says, wrapping the adhesive around his hand. “Check this tomorrow… and, uh–”

“Andy,” he interrupts.

“What?”

“My name’s Andy,” he repeats. “And, uh, you?”

“April,” she answers, still holding his hand in both of hers.

They stay like that for a few moments, and April realizes she’s licking her lips and staring at his kind green eyes in the shallow light of her desk lamp. Her hands have to be sweating, holding his, but Andy doesn’t say anything or retract. And that  _stupid_ breathing thing almost catches her again, an intense heat in her cheeks.

A sudden, loud knock breaks the silence. Both of them look over at the door.

“Oh, I ordered a pizza,” April says, shaking her head but not letting go of Andy’s hand.

“Yeah. Yeah!” he says, standing up in an instant. “Okay, yeah. I should, uh, let you eat that. Pizza. Yeah, you probably had plans anyways. Nursing, that’s hard right? You should study and eat a pizza and I’ll–”

April stands up and can’t figure out what the hell to do with her hands in that moment so she settles with beating her knuckles against the other palm. “Um, I was actually taking a break?” she says cautiously, that same lopsided smile working its way onto her face when she can’t decide what to do there either. “Besides, if I eat a whole pizza myself I’ll probably throw up.”

“Gross.”

“I know, right?” April says with a chuckle. “So…”

“So, are you gonna get the door or should I?”


	3. The Busker and the Barista (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Sweet."

He’d finally scraped together enough money. 

Well, after he went and bought himself something to eat. That was obvious. A breakfast sandwich for a dollar? How could Andy pass  _that_ up?

Counting quarters all the way to the shop just a block away from his actual destination, he grinned when he had the exact amount. Turns out, losing your job and not having much of a safety net behind you other than a small savings meant a lot of scrambling for change. Thankfully, between that and his mother he wasn’t living on the streets quite yet. At least he could play guitar on the street and find  _something_ that way, until the next best thing fell into his lap.

And she seriously had to be it.

Andy saw her talk with customers like they were about to spew acid everywhere, all this hate in this tiny body. But he didn’t really see that, he saw the way she joked whenever he came in to get some coffee. The owner, a wonderful lady named Leslie, always gave him a free cup every morning if he promised to look for a job that day. Andy did, too. He tried his best, but things just were the way they were for now. 

He saw the barista, a short girl with bangs that hid her large, gorgeous eyes when she looked down as often as she did, and Andy couldn’t help himself. He learned her name was April, and for some reason it fit. Stormy, beautiful April.

Andy saved a dollar here and there, and finally bought the few he could. Summoning up his courage, Andy stepped into the quiet, boutique café. 

“Hey Andy!” Leslie greeted from behind the counter. “How’s business?”

“Um, pretty good,” he said with a shy smile, showing the bundle in his hands to Leslie whose eyes lit up. “Is she… um, around?”

Leslie nodded. Andy confided in her this little crush and wondered if it was weird. In her words, it was sweet.

While Andy waited, he realized they’d not really talked. Sure, she sometimes served him coffee but that was also under the context of her same hidden look and small voice. She didn’t seem to make the same kind of cold, cruel jokes towards him either. Even if she did, Andy wouldn’t blame her – they’d probably be hilarious. Even so, she didn’t seem very talkative at all.

She walked out of the back rooms, tying an apron behind her back while Andy stood waiting. When April looked up and saw him, her eyes darted elsewhere. It only took him a moment to realize he should hide the flowers behind his back, April having clearly not noticed them. A slight hint of worry crept over him, wondering if she avoided him like this because he was a creepy busker or if she’d be weirded out by what he had planned.

He cleared his throat and stepped forward. In the background, Leslie watched closely and attempted to hide behind the edge of the counter.

“Um, so... you,” Andy started and squinted. “I mean, me. No, wait... yeah, yeah. You  _and_ me... no, wait.”

“Are you okay?” April asked slowly, and she didn’t look down away from him and he felt an odd surge of confidence by that. 

“Yeah, super fine,” he said, clearing his throat again and scratching the back of his neck. “Okay, this is stupid. I bought you these and this is creepy and lame and I’m sorry.”

He said it in one breath and put the flowers he had bought and had bundled in a messy bouquet on the counter in front of her. A quiet squeal at the end of the counter went unnoticed.

For a second, April didn’t react and only kept her lips pursed and her eyes on the flowers. Andy wondered how long it would be until he was told to leave and never come back. Slowly, though, April reached out and took the flowers and something Andy had only ever seen once before happened.

A genuine smile crept to her face.


	4. Medal (Rated T)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Devastated."
> 
> Sadness porn incoming.

Stifled denial runs the first few days like it’s an unstoppable flood barely held by back by its weakened dam; and April holds it for a while. Just a while, that is. Other men came back, tales of victories and scars adorned like medals of honor.

He bore the real one though, but its weight in her hands was dead and lifeless. A hunk of metal and little more than a shiny bauble to put on a shelf, to gather dust. This, and the pile of unanswered papers on the desk of their small study her father insisted on. Now it was meant solely for those papers, pages blotted with more than ink, and that damned medal.

She rarely left the house, constant reminders everywhere of the supposed victory. What was the value of some vague triumph? Was the price of that this medal? The very metal it was made of, was that  _his_ worth?

She peeled open the next letter, the next one unsent. Her hands shook, like always and the moment she saw his messy handwriting she laughed to herself, all the tears run dry.

There were parties up and down the street, people cheering their country on. For what, though? For this? 

They may have won something, but  _they_ were not April. They weren’t rewarded with a hole in the ground. A cold and dead five-pointed star, that was what she had left of him.

And onward, along the street, the celebrations continued while April sat in a room barely lit, clutching that last bit of him in desperate, foolish hope. Holding on so hard that the metal cut into her hand, bled her onto its surface, and she  _hoped_ beyond reality that this would end. 

And onward, along the streets, the celebrations continued.


	5. Alone in the Dark (Rated T)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Crushed."
> 
> Enjoy :)

_I knew going to this stupid party was stupid_ , April thought while stomping out of that  _stupid_ house with her head bowed low.  _It was stupid. I’m stupid._

She kept walking, staring at her feet, getting as far away from those assholes as quickly as possible. She didn’t bother picking the gunk out of her hair or off of her clothes. Someone came running, the steps loud behind her, and she knew who it was immediately.

“Hey!” he shouted, making it even clearer. 

“Go away, Andy,” she managed to say, trying to keep the wobble in her voice unnoticeable. “Go hang out with your dumb friends at your dumb party.”

“I didn’t know they were gonna do that!” he shouted after and sped up, catching up to her. “I swear!”

It was the worst idea she’d ever had. House parties weren’t her thing unless they were a town over and she could run off with stolen beers. Even then, she needed an excuse, like someone she hated being there. This time her excuse was someone she  _liked_ and thought cared about her. Instead, he had just stared at her, mouth gaping and with an honestly concerned expression she easily ignored while they dumped meat soaked in jello and whatever other foul mess was in that concoction.

There was an important distinction in consent, here. April would normally be fine with being covered in gross dessert-meats, especially if Andy was there.

“Whatever,” she grumbled finally, refusing to look at him.

“Y’know what, you go get cleaned up and I’ll go beat them–”

“You’ll beat them up? Wow, so cool of you, Andy,” she finally turns and looks up at him. Her chest heaves with each breath. “Where were you when they were making this plan up huh? Figuring out how you were gonna ask me to come here?”

“No!”

“You were just gonna… mess with my… Andy, don’t talk to me anymore,” April said without thinking. It didn’t matter, it was out there. Even if in an hour she regretted it, like always, it was out there. “Just… go away?”

“I’m sorry, seriously… I didn’t know, April,” he offered and he sounded so damn genuine that it just made her hate her own reaction and realize she needed to either double down or back off and accept this. “I really didn’t know. I swear–”

“Seriously dude, fuck off.”

April felt a warm sting at the corner of her eye and blinked away the wetness, turning back with a growl and stomping off. It was stupid, this party was stupid, he was stupid…

 _I’m so fucking stupid_.


	6. College (Rated G)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Optimistic."
> 
> April/Andy, Ben/Leslie, and Leslie & April friendship nonsense fic anyone?

_Why did Leslie have to be so stubborn about this?_ April thought, inwardly crossing her fingers that nobody would knock.

“Leslie you seriously have to calm down–”

“But what  _if_ –” her roommate started, eyes bugged out and a terrified gasp falling out not much longer after that. She stared down at the little white cigarette in her hand and dropped it on the floor. “Get it away. What if they catch us, April?”

“I told you we should have done this outside–”

“But there’s a schedule, there’s supposed to be… a  _schedule_ ,” Leslie said, puffing her chest out and taking huge breaths like she had just taken fifty hits from the joint instead of the one. She couldn’t focus on anything in the room and started clawing at her face. “Oh my God, I’m going t o be kicked out of college for one stupid thing… one  _stupid, stupid_ thing! It was one thing, and I can’t believe–”

“Leslie!” April shouted, grabbing her shoulders. The look on Leslie’s face said everything, the usual demeanor of quiet shrugged off because at this rate it was only a hop and a skip before Leslie turned both of them in for absolutely nothing. “Dude, you seriously have to chill out. Nobody is going to knock on our door and ask–”

And just as she said that, there was a dull rapping against their dormitory door.

Leslie froze up and April shook her head. Pushing her away, Leslie took several rapid breaths and walked over to the door before opening it with a hugely affected grin on her face.

April couldn’t see who it was, but clearly they caught Leslie off guard. “Oh, h-hey Ben! And Andy!” she turned to look at April with what could have been a death mask between her eyes and the pained grimace. “Ben and Andy are here, April! Ben the RA and Andy the…”

“General Education major!” he said, and April couldn’t help but roll her lips to hide a grin. He stepped in without any pretense of manners and was on her at once. After a few moments he broke away, his hands at her waist and exclaimed in an incredulous voice, “Woah, you taste like weed.”

April’s eyes widened and she shook her head. Andy opened his mouth in an ‘O’ and met her stare. She tilted her head to look past Andy only to see Leslie frozen at the door, staring at Ben.

“So… are you going to invite me in or what?” Ben asked casually, his mouth a flat line.


	7. Salt (Rated T)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Overwhelmed."

After an abysmal day getting kicked out of his band, Andy just needed a drink. He  _didn’t_ need drama. All he wanted was to simply sit there and sulk in the bar for a little bit. Even he felt an extra weight on his shoulders that day, and didn’t just smile at everyone passing him by. 

He sits at the bar near one of the darker corners where people rarely sat, mostly because of no line of sight to a television, and sits alone, quietly for a while.

 _Burly’s a jerk, and I’m way better at writing songs_.

Then he feels that strange gurgling sadness in the pit of his stomach all over again. Taking another drink, Andy sighs and tries not to think about the band being gone forever. 

“Whiskey,” a sullen voice declares beside him.

Andy turns to see a short woman sitting next to him. In any other world, he thinks she would’ve sat somewhere else. But something seemed off.

Andy continues drinking by himself, ignoring her fidgets. She drinks quickly, downing a shot before he’s even halfway through his third beer. Chuckling, watching her face spasm from the sudden alcohol, Andy pushes the little plate of nuts and pretzel bits over in front of her. She stares at him for a second, but doesn’t eat.

“Hey, I was just sitting over there,” Andy looks over at a burly guy with too much eyebrow and a sharp, slanted nose standing next to the woman. “I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve got the best ass in the whole bar.”

He bit his lip like it was suave or something. Even  _Andy_ knew better than that, so he laughs to himself. 

“Ew, go away,” she says back sharply. Turning back to her drink, she taps her fingers on the bar waiting for the newcomer to leave. He doesn’t. “Seriously. Please?”

“Look, I’m just sayin’ that I wanna see that ass in my lap.”

“Please stop,” she doesn’t look anywhere but straight ahead. Andy glances over and her hands are dug into the bar like she’s prepared to use it as an anchor. 

“Bitch, take a compliment.”

“I think she said go away,” Andy finally speaks up, not looking at him. He takes a drink and sighs.

The belligerent looks at her once more, eyes ogling, and then steps over to Andy. 

“Who asked you?” he fronts like this is a fight, and  _he’s_ the one being slighted. “Who the fuck are you?”

If there was anything Andy was exceptionally bad at, it was quick thinking. Even so, he was at his lowest that a bar fight felt like it’d be fine. Plus, he  _was_ being a creep.

“I mean, you mess with my girl like that…” he glances over and the woman breathes a deep sigh. She looks at him, pleading. “I… y’know, I can’t just let you do that.”

Andy turns in his stool and stands up. Although the guy is more muscular than him, obviously, the immediate height difference puts enough threat out there in an already drunken, stupid mind. He shakes his head in disbelief and scoffs.

“Apologize, and get out,” Andy tells him in a few words.

The woman does not turn to look at the little showdown, but it’s not long before someone in the bar’s logoed shirt walks over and puts his hand on the drunk’s shoulder. Andy finally sits back down when the guy is clearly escorted out.

“Thanks,” the woman speaks up after another handful of minutes.

“No problem,” Andy reaches for a chunk of pretzel and bites down hard. Picking up his glass, he offers it to the woman and they clink them together.

They sit in quiet, or as quiet as possible, and Andy keeps glancing over at the woman, whose name he learns is April. Once, she meets that glance. 

_Maybe this day doesn’t suck so hard, after all._


	8. Separated (Rated E)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt - "Amazed."
> 
> Enjoy! :)

This was  _seriously_ bothering April. 

She eventually grew fed up with it, trying to remember how she knew this guy attending this same, stupid unity concert. All April knows is that some crazy lady in local government practically forced her to go, and at one of the numerous pre-show merchandise tables was someone she just  _couldn’t_ shake off.

 _Maybe I hooked up with him once?_ she thought, trying to sift through her sadly scant few one-night stands. 

It was all hollow, and neither did he seem like someone she just casually knew. It was so off-putting, and obnoxious and difficult, that April threw away that ball of stress in her stomach to stomp over to him and declare, loudly, “Who the hell are you?”

It took him maybe a minute before he looked at her, dumbfounded, and then a grin spread wide over his face. Then it hit April.

“Holy crap,” he said slowly, standing up. “Holy... wow. April? Like, tiny little April?”

She was still awestruck at this, a kid that lived on her block years and  _years_ ago. When she was a little kid, he befriended her and they spent innumerable adventures in the woods and in their backyards together. Then he moved away, and April had never been more heartbroken and likely never would be again. Then that strange, little kid half-crush faded and thankfully she got over him.

“Wow,” she said back, breathy and confused. “I didn’t... it’s been forever.”

“Yeah,” Andy answered back, and he cleared his throat. “Y-Yeah.”

They stared at each other, sizing each other up. For all the sounds of people milling about, pushing her just a little, and Andy with a few people around him, it was strange. It was like in that moment, they forgot everything but this chance meeting, improbable beyond reasoning and all reality.

April felt something hot flush against her cheeks, taking too long to realize that it wasn’t something  _on_ her cheeks but her face itself. That ball of stress knotted itself back up, and she felt that sense of eternal longing and loneliness that she ditched years ago creep back. 

It only took another minute.

Whether it was years, or maybe it was where they were in that moment, and perhaps it was just the fact that they technically knew each other and whatever sense of strange formality could be thrown out but, nevertheless, it took but another  _minute_ before she was on top of him. 

They stole into an empty trailer, and April rode her frustrations out on him. They breathed each others’ names across skin, and April had never  _felt_ so much with someone that she, realistically, barely knew anymore. She straddled his legs, pushed his hand up against her breast, and leaned down to bite along his shoulder. His hand brushed between them, and April let that frustration seep out into her voice, crying out along his skin.

She came with his hands on her, still on top of him, and crashed into him with another cry. She kept moving, desperate to keep them connected. Her mouth met his, and still unsatisfied, she crept lower until she was swallowing him whole, trying to figure out why they moved this quickly.

All it took to remember was his breathy, “ _April_ ,” he spoke and the way his eyes watched her every moment between writhing atop him and closed eyes, circling him with her tongue.

They clung together, whispering about old times and what it’s like to see each other again. 

“Just... don’t leave again,” she warned him, tapping his still sweaty, bare chest.

His kiss, and his hands, and the words after --  _Hey, I totally promise... it’s been way too long and that was way too awesome_ \-- kept her satisfied for now. What mattered was Andy keeping his promise for a good, long time.


End file.
